Pattakos wants juror investigated

'Why did they want lunch?' among questions Ashli Ford's defense counsel wants answered.

SANDUSKY — After accusing Erie County Common Pleas Judge Beverly McGookey of jury tampering and corruption, attorney Peter Pattakos took to the airwaves on Thursday for a book-tour style podcast with his infamous client, Ashli Ford.

Pattakos filed two Affidavits of Disqualification with the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this month, citing affidavits he obtained from two jurors after Ford’s COVID scam trial ended in May in a hung jury. Immediately after the trial, Pattakos used his Facebook page to urge jurors to contact him, and tell him how the jury had been corrupted.

And he might not be done presenting the case. There’s one additional juror, in particular, that his team is still pursuing, Pattakos said.

EDITORIAL CARTOON: Attorney Peter Pattakos turned a three-hour podcast stream into a grand spectacle—invoking Greek mythology, Marie Antoinette, lying media, and global conspiracies to explain why his client is being persecuted. Read the full analysis of Pattakos’ performative "litigation PR" and hyperbole at

“(He) was identified as one of the people who was against Ashli from the start. We need to hire an investigator on that guy,” Pattakos told Ford and others present during the nearly three-hour podcast. Pattakos, dressed in shorts, sat on a couch beside Ford inside the house where she lives, center stage to the scam, forgery and mortgage fraud scheme she’s accused of committing.